Binman can keep £10,000, if he finishes giant jigsaw of torn notes

A binman who discovered £10,000 in torn-up bank notes has been told he can keep the cash - but must first separate all the bits of paper and assemble them back together as individual notes before he can spend any.

Graham Hill discovered the £10 and £20 notes in a bin while on his round in the city of Lincoln. For an unknown reason they had been cut or torn into small pieces.

After handing the money in to police, a six-month investigation could find no evidence that it was stolen or linked to any criminal activity.

It was returned to Hill after no one came forward to claim it.

The Bank of England has said that it will exchange the notes for new ones if they can be pieced together again.

Hill, who lives in Gainsborough, is beginning work on a painstaking but rewarding mammoth jigsaw puzzle.